ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines Renaissance ideologies of gender in a few key plays from the genre of "erudite comedy", it examines how plays from this genre represent and critique idealized visions of patriarchal masculinity among the elite classes of Renaissance Italy. The analysis reveals that comedies evaluated patriarchy by engaging with problems of maternity and mothering present to patriarchal ideology and identity. It examines the relationship between Antonio Landi's Il commodo and the representations of ideal motherhood in the prescriptive literature of Renaissance humanism. These plays were composed in different time periods and contexts, but when examined together, they problematize the patriarchal ideal of the father-son relationship. They also discusses ideal feminine virtues and how they would benefit society. Civic humanism, political theory of republicanism that presents governance common privilege as the responsibility of citizens was predicated on the language of fatherhood.
